Shopping, Massages and a Super Dinner

Today was another day where we split up for different activities.  Petra, Jules and I decided we needed to exercise our shopping muscles while the rest of the crew took a cruise up the Mekong to visit the Cu Chi tunnels.

The tunnels used to stretch for hundreds of kilometers and were used by the Viet Cong first in the fight against the French, then in the Vietnam war.  The team said it was interesting but a bit of a rushed tour.  However Mikey, Rob and Oren also took the opportunity to fire some major automatic guns, then Mikey smoked a cigar.

That was all a bit macho for me so in contrast the girls and I had an exceptionally relaxed day.  We began by wandering up to the posh end of town, around the major hotels where we discovered just what a markup can be found on the same items we were looking at in the markets.  We found a cute cafe run by an Aussie and had a drink which was nice (although going up the stairs a chunk of plaster from the ceiling fell off hitting Jules which wasn't so nice).  It was great being out and about early, the streets were quieter and the pavements were full of tiny stalls selling produce to the locals.  We figured as most of the sellers were older women, they were probably selling the day's harvest from their farm where the younger people were working.

After while we wandered back towards our hotel and having walked a fair while thought we should in all fairness give our feet a break with a foot massage.  For $US7 we got an hour foot massage which included up to our knees, our hands and arms and a quick shoulder massage - very thorough!

Refreshed we hit the Ben Thanh markets.  This is a massive market complex where you can buy really just about anything from the clothes and lacquer ware we were interested in to fresh food, toiletries, kitchen supplies, you name it, it is probably in there.  It is an absolute Aladdin's cave of narrow passageways filled with hawkers.


Most of the time you barter, but there is also a fixed price government run section around the outside which allows you to get a good idea of what things are worth before you go and haggle.  We bought loads!  We have clothes, decorator items, presents and more.  I actually had to come back to the hotel and drop stuff off so I could shop more efficiently.  The markets also have a large number of food stalls, so we had a great lunch there.  It was delicious.

Lunch at the Ben Thanh markets - they all sit on tiny stools which means we eat at roughly crotch height.

However today was also REALLY hot.  41 degrees according to one side and intensly humid.  Eventually I faded, I just couldn't take the heat anymore and had to have a break in the hotel's airconditioning.  The humidity continued to build outside till the heavens opened with a heavy rain storm complete with some spectacular thunder and lightening.

We had a bit of time between shopping and dinner so Petra, Mikey, Rob and I filled it in with a back massage - what else would you do?

Dinner was brilliant.  Meg's has a Vietnamese friend who she met through world youth day and she took us to a real Vietnamese resturant and ordered for us.  It was literally only a dollar or two more than eating in the markets (apparently no locals would eat where we have ben because it is too expensive and not good enough quality!!!) and the variety of food was amazing.  It was a huge place and very interesting because instead of having a kitchen hidden away as we are used to, there were heaps of small stoves down the side of the place which served as the kitchen.

Tomorrow we start our journey up the Mekong.  I have to say that HCMC has been a revellation, we have really loved it.  Our hotel, the Tan Hai Long Hotel and Spa was brilliant, especially for its proximity to the Ben Thanh markets, not to mention its great day spa and generally excellent facilities and cleanliness.

This part of the journey has been great, can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.